“But however great the injustice of our foes in commencing this war, it is by no means equal to that cruelty with which they have conducted it. The course of their armies is marked by rapine and devastation. Thousands, without distinction of age or sex, have been driven from their peaceful abodes to encounter the rigours of inclement seasons, and the face of heaven hath been insulted by the wanton conflagration of defenceless towns. Their victories have been followed by the cool murder of men no longer able to resist, and those who escaped from the first act of carnage have been exposed by cold, hunger and nakedness—to wear out a miserable existence in the tedious hours of confinement, or to become the destroyers of their countrymen, of their friends, perhaps, dreadful idea! of their parents or children. Nor was this the outrageous barbarity of an individual, but a system of deliberate malice, stamped with the concurrence of the British legislature, and sanctioned with all the formalities of law. Nay, determined to dissolve the closest bonds of society, they have stimulated servants to slay their masters in the peaceful hour of domestic security. And, as if all this were insufficient to slake their thirst of blood, the blood of brothers, of unoffending brothers, they have excited the Indians against us; and a general, who calls himself a christian, a follower of the merciful Jesus, hath dared to proclaim to all the world his intention of letting loose against us whole hosts of savages, whose rule of warfare is promiscuous carnage—who rejoice to murder the infant smiling in its mother’s arms—to inflict on their prisoners the most excruciating torments, and exhibit scenes of horror from which nature recoils. “Were it possible, they would have added to this terrible system: for they have offered the inhabitants of these states to be exported by their merchants to the sickly, baneful climes of India, there to perish: an offer not accepted, merely from the impracticability of carrying it into execution. “Notwithstanding these great provocations we have treated such of them as fell into our hands with tenderness, and studiously endeavoured to alleviate the afflictions of their captivity. This conduct we have pursued so far as to be by them stigmatized with cowardice, and by our friends with folly. But our dependence was not upon man. It was upon Him who hath commanded us to love our enemies and to render good for evil. And what can be more wonderful than the manner of our deliverance? How often have we been reduced to distress, and yet been raised up? When the means to prosecute the war have been wanting to us, have not our foes themselves been rendered instrumental in providing them? This hath been done in such a variety of instances so peculiarly marked almost by the direct interposition of Providence, that not to feel and acknowledge his protection, would be the height of impious ingratitude.